Parkinson’s is a disease that forces you to rethink many aspects of your life. Some more obvious. Others less so, but not irrelevant. The table is one of these: those suffering from Parkinson’s have particular dietary needs, which change as the disease evolves, and which can end up compromising the relationship with food and cooking of patients and their caregivers.
The experts know this well Limpe Foundation for Parkinson’s Onluswho have decided to join forces with the JRE association – Young Restaurateurs of Europe – to create a cookbook specifically dedicated to patients and those who live, eat and cook with them.
The title of the volume is “At the table with Parkinson’s, eating with taste”, and will be presented on the occasion of World Parkinson’s Day on 11 April, during the Congress of the Italian Society of Parkinson and movement disorders LIMPE-DISMOV ETS which will take place held in Milan, from 10 to 12 April, at the MiCo.
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Rediscover your passion for cooking
“The idea for the book was born from the double mission our foundation has always had, that of finding resources that can help research, and that of providing resources that can help people with Parkinson’s,” he explains to Salute Mario Zappia, president of the Limpe Foundation for Parkinson’s and Director of the Neurology clinic of the University of Catania. “For this reason we thought of creating a book, the proceeds of which will go to finance research, and which will at the same time provide many gourmet recipes, designed to help people with Parkinson’s maintain their passion for the table and cooking”.
The recipe book is therefore a tool dedicated to people with Parkison, which helps to orient themselves in the kitchen beyond the simple, but obviously important, advice from the nutritionist on how to modify the diet during the course of the disease. It provides recipes that use the foods and precautions necessary for the well-being of patients, making them particularly appetizing, so as to ensure that the pleasure of consuming and preparing meals together with the whole family is not lost.
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“For this reason, we involved the association of young restaurateurs – continues Zappia – who were stimulated by the chef Pietro D’Agostino have developed a series of recipes, ranging from appetizers to desserts, and which are associated with bottles paired with the dishes by experts.”
One disease, many different needs
The role of nutrition in the management of Parkinson’s disease is particularly relevant, and varies depending on the stages of progression of the disease. Furthermore, we are talking about a disease that accompanies patients for up to 30 years, and which therefore exposes them to very different needs, opportunities and problems, which change as the symptoms progress.
We start from a prodromal phase, in which the symptoms have not yet manifested themselves, and in which a diet based on the principles of the Mediterranean diet, based on antioxidants, can protect the nervous system from the disease and delay its progression.
As the disease progresses, problems may arise due to interference with the absorption of levodopa, the main drug with which we treat Parkinson’s, which can compete with food proteins, and therefore reduce its ability to act. And in the more advanced stages, food intake problems, dysphagia and so-called ab ingestis pneumonia arise, linked to foods of mixed consistency which can facilitate the transit of the food bolus into the trachea and cause bronchial irritation.
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“The recipes that the chefs proposed to us try to meet the needs of all patients, even if they will clearly then have to be evaluated according to the condition of each person with Parkison, which is never the same as that of another because each patient makes story in itself”, concludes Zappia. “We think that the book will prove very useful, because Parkinson’s often pushes patients to lose the pleasure of food and to undereat, and thus lose too much weight. The recipes are designed to provide the correct caloric intake, and are tasty and inviting to vision, and this will help many people living with Parkinson’s to return to eating with pleasure.”